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I wonder how many pro-China green accounts, accounts used solely for anti-US sentiment, etc we will see commenting on this story. It seems the propaganda folks are turning more attention to HN. There were 3 at the time of this posting with the usual bothersiderisms, etc. One even went full "Sharia law in the US!"
Please don't break the site guidelines by insinuating astroturfing or shillage without evidence. Someone having an opposing view to yours is not evidence. Neither is an account being new. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
I was unaware that discussing astroturfing, trolling, and propaganda on HN was prohibited. Apologies, I will refrain from calling attention to it in the future.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's actually quite surprising how un-integrated US government agencies and systems are.
It's not a bug, it's a feature
I think it makes sense to separate local, state, and federal governments, but there's surprisingly little government data sharing between even federal government agencies, even when there's jurisdiction overlap.
An indirect reminder that now that YC China is a thing @sama and @paulg and any other affiliated will have to avoid saying anything negative about China in order to keep doing business there.
They should issue public statements condemn China's terrible rights violations now and promise they won't retract them. Establish integrity and refuse to give it up in the name of Chinese money.
The only reason for the state of things is that we've tolerated both utilizing industrial era labor standards and outsourcing all of our manufacturing.
If China is forced to bring its labor standards to 1st world levels, there is no reason why we can't both purchase goods from them at a better rate, while improving our buying power by revitalizing dead industries within our nation.
We can't keep buying dirt cheap goods from the east while also complaining about our economic woes. If we could get people to understand that moving to this quasi slave labor is the reason we are now having to depend on it maybe we could break this feedback loop.
But as things are now, we are in a catch 22. We dont have a strong economy because we have outsourced our manufacturing, and now can only afford to keep relying on that labor.
China is going to have to deal with actually developing their economy. They have become an economic superpower by essentially being allowed to cheat the system. It is now negatively impacting global economies and their business model is utterly unsustainable.
We are seeing things improve with their labor standards due to public outcry, and now we are starting to rebuild by reintroducing stateside manufacturing and tariffs.
We shouldn't need to rely on China for anything other than rare earth minerals and luxury goods that can't be produced in the west.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> future number one market That's highly unlikely given the current state, as US consumer is is about 1/3 of the world's household consumption https://www.selectusa.gov/largest-market , and is growing 3% this quarter. China has alot of debt problems, and will suffer heavily in a trade war. About 45% of Chinese GDP is in 'investment', where probably half is waste (continued state investments into expensive-to-maintain…
> China has alot of debt problems, and will suffer heavily in a trade war. About 45% of Chinese GDP is in 'investment', where probably half is waste (continued state investments into expensive-to-maintain, rarely used rails, bridge, and buildings). Whereas for a developed country like US, it's about 20% investment (70% in consumption). This seems like almost the reverse of the conclusion you're trying to support. Inv…
If China is forced to adhere to 1st world labor standards, they lose all power over the US. There are few things produced in China that cannot be produced here.
The state of things is caused by a feedback loop. China needs the west to purchase its goods. Break that dependence, and China will have no choice but to play ball and end its parasitic relationship with the West.
American manufacturing used to be booming. Look at the 50s and 60s. Quality of life and buying power for factory workers was massive, and people bought American goods.
We have basically allowed ourselves to be dependent on China by accepting their horrendous labor standards and allowing our industries to die. There is no reason we cannot reverse course and reinvest in our nation.
If the us institutes tariffs and boycotts Chinese goods, they are fucked and will have to adapt.
China has undeserved economic power and is causing an imbalance within the global economy.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not a bug, it's a feature
Yes but it's also the primary source of a lot of government waste (the same type of waste the conservatives are against). I think it makes sense to separate local, state, and federal governments, but there's surprisingly little government data sharing between even federal government agencies, even when there's jurisdiction overlap.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Please don't break the site guidelines by insinuating astroturfing or shillage without evidence. Someone having an opposing view to yours is not evidence. Neither is an account being new. https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html
I wasn't insinuating, I was stating. These types of troll/propaganda/astroturf accounts are obvious on the left/right or pro/anti-US side of things on Twitter/reddit and are similarly obvious here. You banned the specific account I mentioned for trolling. I was unaware that discussing astroturfing, trolling, and propaganda on HN was prohibited. Apologies, I will refrain from calling attention to it in the future.
I know it looks and feels super obvious, but I assure you this is an illusion. On the internet, people are orders of magnitude too quick to leap from "random user with obviously wrong opinion" to "obvious bot/astroturfer/paid shill". It's a crazy bias. We look into this stuff all the time, and 99% of the time it's just that some people disagree with you. More than 99% actually.
Even when we ban an account for trolling, that's almost always someone whose sincere passions about a topic led them to violate the guidelines and not stop when we asked them to stop. That's not astroturfing. People are just very passionate about divisive issues.
The question is, how did the Chinese immigration know? for each applicant do select count(*) from people_who_pissed_us where social_username = applicant.fb.username?
Actually it’s just that if you want to be a foreign journalist and live in China, you need to apply for a special Journalist visa. The process of application for those is much more difficult than other types of visa.
Which makes it very easy to select which media to approve.